Random musings

Big week ahead

2011-11-21T23:12:00.001Z

Massive week ahead for my forensics students and for me. A week completely themed on arson. Marketing are planning a piece for tes on my unique software for the students and making the most of the week.

Got big plans....

A noise annoys

2011-11-18T19:22:00.001Z

Kids + prolonged time in car = argh!

Let's get on with it.

2011-11-14T22:57:00.001Z

Ok. It's been quite a while since my last blog posting. I've move jobs, Richard is now living with me and Becki, we now also have a rabbit. It's all good.

For me, the biggest change is that I'm now lecturing in forensic science at warrington collegiate. It's a really nice place to be at and it's made all the better by my amazing students!

Software stuff... I'm developing stuff for my students and the people Becki now works for, Tutor Doctor. On top of this, I'm playing around on android using Xamarin's mono for android app for visual studio. Yes, I actually bought software a well....

Going to rehash my website at some point and start writing for CVu.

Lots happening with more to come!

Freedom isn't free...

2011-04-21T23:33:00.001+01:00

The problem with free speech is that people really don't understand what it means.

It means that you have the right to say as you want. Simple as that. And that's the bitch of it - chances are that it's going to piss someone off. The pissing off of someone means the tempering of what is said and thereby the freedom to say what you want is curtailed.

There are also those who take exception at what is said and decides to litigate. Not a problem if it's a lie and damages the reputation, but the threat stiffles what someone says.

Ok so freedom of speech is free as long as it doesn't piss someone off, doesn't have someone litigate against you or plain causes a problem.

Sounds like freedom to me...

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A month to go

2011-03-29T22:46:00.001+01:00

The uk has gone mad. Is it the messed up economy? Is it the price of fuel? Is it that we've just moved into what is usually laughingly called summer (easy to tell the difference between summer and winter - the rain gets warmer). The answer is a resounding no.

The country has gone mad for a marriage. Not the marriage of Jim and Hilda Bloggs, but a royal one.

On one side, the budget is tight and is financed by either a loan, savings or help from family. On the other side, money is no object and has a cast of thousands. Money is no object as the royals don't pay for it, but the tax payer does - and will continue to do so for the next 5 years.

What is really messed up though is that in a time when the public sector is being cut back due to a lack of control and bail out of the banks and inflation is at 4.5% that we're being told to say 'blow it' and celebrate. I'd rather say 'blow that' and pump the money wasted back in to the economy.

"Ah, but money is being pumped in by buying stuff and the street parties" I hear you say.

True. It will. But it will cost more for the wedding over the next 5 years than the incredibly short pump will put in.

Now if they had a simple registry office and a bash in pub, no one would mind. But no, can't do that.

Something else no-one has considered is how much the economy will lose due to it bring an enforced bank holiday.

Anyone hourly paid, sessional or on a work and be paid contract is not being paid - no pay, no tax, no money to the exchequer.

I think anyone paid like that would rather earn than lose the pay. They won't get paid and you can be assured the employers won't give them anything because of not being in on that day.

Grossly unfair.

Here's to you Jim and Hilda - you are what keeps us on our feet, not some rich spongers who, if suddenly were scrapped would save more than they proport to bring in.

I'm deliberately not taking part in anything to do with the farce of the wedding. Why? I want to keep a roof over my head, food in my stomach and escape from this rat race - no thanks to another waste of money.

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Web work and old books

2011-03-13T23:48:00.001Z

My better half is working on her website and needed some help, so I get out an old book which covers html and css. She starts working through it, hits a problem and emails it over to me.

Horrified best describes what she's written as while it works, it wont validate and looks like html 2. This made me think - "should books be retired after a certain date"?

It's not as dumb as it sounds. Books written in pre-ANSI C++ really has little value but will confuse those learning. Html has moved massively too, so should these be archived and removed? Tough call.

Why? There is value in old books.

Selective cull then?

Hard to say. Some old books are better at teaching the methodology more than a language.

As I say, tough call.

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The more you dig

2011-02-27T00:43:00.001Z

It's been a while since I've enthused so much as I have about Dublin core recently.

The more I get into it, the more interesting and the more uses I can see for it.

It's da bomb!

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What a waste of effort!

2011-02-25T17:44:00.000Z

Formspring is a fun little idea - random people ask you questions, you post the answer which can also appear on twitter and facebook. Sign up is via the usual fill-in the boxes or by logging in via facebook.

Which is where it goes wrong.

To allow this to happen, permission has to be given by the user to use the information facebook holds. There is nothing new in this, just about every app and it's dog asks for varied levels of permission, so there must be a common data format in use, that or developers get direct access to the heaving and groaning database in some form or another.

With that in mind, why did I still have to supply my details to formspring? Is there a problem sharing common data or is it just that they can't be arsed?

Either way, it annoys me that folks don't use a technology that isn't far off ten years old now and works amazingly well and even better - bloody fast.

Dumbasses

Fresh install of hardware and software

2011-02-24T15:37:00.000Z

Becki bought a new printer today - it's one of those all singing, all dancing ones from HP. Wireless, inkjet, scanner - the lot. Really nice as well.

Powered it up, went through the set up, connected it to the router and went onto the system configuration panel on my Linux box. Straight off (well, in less than 3 seconds), the printer was found and in another two clicks, installed with the test print coming through. Went to xsane (I'd unplugged my scanner so I have a socket) and kaplaw! the scanner was found and worked. No messing about with silly things - just there and working.

It took almost 20 minutes for my Win7 laptop to install all the crap and print something out. Great. It worked, but was a pain.

Next up is Becki's laptop. Her box is currently undergoing an operating system upgrade to Win7 from WinXP (there is a big problem with XP on her laptop - it just runs like someone doing a marathon on wet sand with a pair of lead boots on).

All the files were shifted to the Linux box (again, painless - I tried to use the one under Win7, but alas - it was more of a pain than anything) and the work started.

So far, it's been painless. Most of everything is back on, just doing all of the updates and then the fun of putting the new printer on begins.

This really seems a needless waste of resources. It has taken just about 80 mins so far to get the laptop to this state and will probably take another 80 to get it working. Last install of Fedora tool just under 30 minutes to be up, running with a full desktop, another 20 mins for a mound of updates and that was it - a fully working system in under an hour.

While Win7 is a massive improvement over WinXP, Microsoft still have a lot to learn...

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 - urg

2011-02-23T10:02:00.000Z

With great excitement I downloaded the latest and greatest SP for Win7 over night. Bit of a biggy, 87Mb, but nothing really in comparison with my rawhide updates on the Linux box (which can hit the odd Gb at times, especially when there has been a mass rebuild due to a change in gcc or glibc).

When I left the box last night, it was happily beavering away. I get up this morning to finalise the update, it looks good and then starts moaning about my copy of Win7 being a fake...

Easy enough, go to computer, right click on properties, enter my key again and it should be fine.

Should being the operative word!

I now find myself having to deinstall the service pack, re-enter my key, re-validate and re-install. What a waste of time that is!!!!

I don't understand why MS decided on this dozy Genuine Windows thing - it's more of a ball ache than anything else. If they want to drop the piracy rates, it's simple. DROP THE PRICE!!!

If MS ditched the 4 versions of the same piece of software and released one (like they used to for 2000 and XP) and dropped the price tag from near on £200 to £40, the number of people ripping off the software would drop as well - massively. No-one in their right minds wants to pay £200 for an operating system (OK, those on Apple systems will, but then if you want a trashed version of BSD which looks funky, you have to pay through the nose for it - most others install BSD with a functional front end and don't have to cough up) - it's the same with games. If you charge through the nose, the number of pirates increases as does the desire to break the protection. Drop the price, the incentive to pirate drops.

Still, that's not up to me to say. This is the longest a piece of MS software has ever lasted on one of my machines and that is only because I need it for work and virtualisation under Linux is still sucky.

Right, let's do the restart shuffle...

Nick Courtney - Rest In Piece

2011-02-23T09:51:00.000Z

I've just read on DigitialSpy that Nicholas Courtney has passed on.

Incase you're unaware, Nick played the Brigadier in from the 2nd incarnation of the Doctor right up to the 7th and also made an appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

He will be missed around the convention scene where he was always a man of witt with many interesting anecdotes of his time with the errant Timelord.

Rest in piece Nick - here's to your eternal travels with the others :)

surprise surprise - not

2011-02-14T01:09:00.001Z

As expected, because I'm not paying, frog misses out on a school trip. Sounds heartless, but not really.

I have absolutely no religeous beliefs and have always said that the ex would deal with that. She chose to have them christened Catholic and that was the way they were to be raised.

Not a problem, but I'd have any part of it (I refused to go to the service before ashleigh was christened, but showed up with my German books and in jeans and t-shirt. My priority was passing an exam not some bullshit or other)

She sent them to Catholic schools, but I had to foot the bill. One of the biggest and richest money laundering, peadophile hiding rackets going yet it just wants more.

I will pay for any other trip, but if it is some God-bothering bullshit which has no educational value, well they can go whistle.

If religeon was that important, she would shell out. This bank is shut.

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she is a bitch

2011-02-12T22:33:00.001Z

This is my weekend with the kids. I look forward to this, but not this weekend. This weekend ash has a cold.

Last year, she averaged a cold every 23 days. Okay, she is in reception which is acknowledged as a plague pit, but that sort of frequency is insane.

When she goes down, she's given calpol. I have nothing against calpol but for a five year old you might as well give pink sugar goo for all it does.

Next is diet. If you feed a kid shit, their health will be shit. Every 23 days - what does that show? Exactly.

To top it all, the kid's Mum is being arsey again over anything. On Friday it was slamming down with rain. Despite knowing I was outside in the car, she wouldn't open the door until i was standing there getting wet through.

She's using Richard's phone by proxy (stand over telling him what to say) and demanding I pay for a religeous trip. She want's him in a catholic school, she can pay for the religeous bullshit visits. I will pay, without question, for any other trip, but I won't pay for that. She wants to go through court, fine. I will fight it.

The kids are listless with sad eyes. You can see the fight behind them. They know she's an uncaring bitch, but she is their mother.

She's an undeserving bitch.

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Crap code can be fun

2011-01-13T23:44:00.001Z

I've recently started working with a friend on fixing code for use elsewhere. It's fun, but a shed load of work.

The reason is simple - the code was either written by a drug crazed drunken glaswegian who codes by hitting random keys with a beer can or the by a bunch of arseholes who decided to leave the coding until 12 hours before the delivery was due.

Either way, it's code that makes your eyes bleed in the use of bad practise and complete lack of understanding of security for sql - so many points for injection attacks it's stupid.

After 60 hours code on my side, and even more by my friend we're getting close to something that might work.

Why this entry then? Afterall, the code is getting there.

Reason is simple. Even though fixing the code is not that difficult do far, it is fun. Not haha fun, but fun in a getting down and dirty way.

I'm looking forward to seeing it blossom, the roots are healthy :-)

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Meh

2011-01-06T23:57:00.001Z

Too bored to blog tonight.

Oh well.

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It makes me feel sad in a way

2011-01-05T09:28:00.001Z

For many years I have written code as a hobby and for the fun of it. Sure, I've had my code pulled apart and had my fair share of scorn cast upon it, but it has at least functioned and through these daggers of ridicule come out the stronger.

I've done some commercial work which has been strong and is still in use in schools and colleges in the uk.

I've recently been fixing commercial code for a friend and it makes me sad that whoever originally wrote the code dared to call himself a programmer. It is the biggest pile of steaming crap I've seen. Even my early attempts were better than this.

What really makes me sad though is it still goes on and worse, I can do better but no-one cares!

Oh well, onward...

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And so onto 2011

2011-01-01T23:04:00.001Z

Welcome to 2011!

Over the next couple of days more changes may happen, things that may shape many things.

First is south cheshire college.

I've been there since mid September on a years contract with Protocol. It's a great place to work, but is a round trip of 70 miles which means it costs £200 a month to get there. My timetable is not yet fixed so it may mean I can't afford to stay there. Pity if it happens, it's a great place to work.

2nd is into manchester. Good pay, less distance, nice folks, only 3 hours a week, so not much there.

3rd is south manc college. 17.5hrs a week, nearer to home, but I'm still waiting to hear.

4th roy's websites. Unpaid work...

Last, project x....

The next week can make or break... watch this space!

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Looking back in time

2010-12-30T23:00:00.001Z

In 2011 I will hit 40. officially, I'll be middle aged. According to my students, I range from 29 to 34 tops all of which I attribute to never smoking, very little booze, never used any drugs (other than ones from the quacks) and above all, the love of my wife.

A friend on facebook said if he could go back to 18, there would be 50 things he'd do differently which made me think, what would i do given that opportunity?

I know I've made mistakes, but from them i've come out better or come away with something good.

I know I'd have learned how to program earlier and moved into teaching sooner, but if I changed anything else would there have been as big a knock on?

Take joining the RAF in 1990. What would have happen had I not done that?

I'd never have left so would probably never worked for the RSPCA and so have not had Percy. Without Pooh, I'd probably not have met the ex, not had the kids.

Now I'd still have done German and still have met Becki. Possibly. You see due to a big financial mess the ex caused, I did my course when it could be afforded. Without having met her, no mess, course done sooner and therefore no Becki.

Cause and effect. Not a big change, but still one with big aftershocks.

Okay, this is based on liklihoods and probability, but still.

Lets try another. My masters.

I didn't finish it due the ex and Salford. She didn't want me to do it as she didn't want me to change the bank account to reflect it or worse, if I carried on for the doctorate to use the title Dr.

Okay I'd have a greater range of jobs open to me, but as it didn't happen it would be hard to tell the knock on.

Given this butterfly effect and given the chance for a do over, what would *you* do?

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Rip off insurance

2010-12-28T22:12:00.001Z

After a number of text messages with Roy last night, I decided to look again at my car insurance as it gone from about £450 to £720 without any change to the details.

I've already blogged about price comparison websites and hidden credit searches so I wanted to avoid them.

However there is a point where a money takes over from a credit report.

On i went to gocompare.com and I'm glad I did as it came out at £513 - same insurer, same details, same everything. Phoned up my insurers and within 20 mins it was sorted.

All credit to kwikfit for getting sorted, but a boo hiss for me having to do this leg work. What makes it more annoying is it's with same underwriters who, 12 days back, was over £200 more expensive!

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bloody phone

2010-12-27T13:28:00.001Z

I have a htc hero running android 2.1 - I wanted an open source operating system on my phone and haven't looked back.

Only got two things against it.

1. It likes firing up applications without me wanting them. It annoyance me that I'm using htc peep for twitter only to find both peep and the official twitter app are running. It also randomly starts an Mp3 player.

2. Speed. Old phone, newer os == speed hit == lag.

I don't mind 2 - it's still faster than the iphone3 which was current when I got this phone.

It is 1 that annoys me, but hey, it's still cool :-)

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boxing day or just a day to box?

2010-12-27T00:15:00.001Z

I've had a smashing day today. I spent it up at my sister's farm, had a great lunch, played on the wii and really enjoyed myself.

The last time I was there was just shy of 4 years back. I was still with the ex, but it was the last Christmas we'd be "together".

Why quotes? For quite a while things had been a stalemate of me not knowing how to move on or her just moving. Together means just that, you can live as a couple but not be together. Together is more than just sharing a bed or house, it's sharing loyalty, trust, hopes, dreams and aspirations. It's about support, care and respect. Not about a piece of paper (which was legally dubious in my case due to the amount of pain killers I was taking, I could not be considered legally competent)

When I return that last time I drew up some paper boxes to make sense of it all. The boxes covered responsibility, love, happiness and future. Lots in box 1, virtually nothing in two, same in three and two in the last. The two read "live" and "die". Not "life" but "live". One letter put the other three into context. Was I just treading sand as "living" or did I have a life?

I then looked carefully at what had been the marriage. It had been compromises to the point of just going along for an easy life. But at that point, the life went, but living didn't.

I looked at the happiness box. Everything in there had nothing to do with her; writing code, German and moving into teaching. My love of photography had been killed due to 'cost'.

It was looking bad, but still that one letter bugged me.

Cut to the chase, 4 months later and it was over and suddenly I realised it was live and not life.

Problem is it's happening again. Not with becki, that goes from strength to strength, now it's my professional life but at the end of it all is the same question more or less - work live or work life?

Sounds a simple question, but can it honestly be answered? If it is answered, is it a simple answer or answer simplified?

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The war has been "won"

2010-12-25T22:15:00.001Z

For the past couple of years, my ex has been splashing the cash she managed to extract during the divorce. It was close to £30000

She curried favour with the kids by buying them anything. The churn was amazing.

She bought all sorts of crap - she went through 3 sofas one year. This year, things changed. All thanks to a 4 year old girl - Ashleigh.

Ash has taken a great shine to Becki and loves her to bits and she lets her mum know it - the fun thing with kids that age is lying doesn't happen.

The ex tried one last go and blew the rest of the money on Ash's 5th party. Only problem is she did nothing for Richard's which hurt him.

The party was good, but Ash asked for Becki...

On the way back dropping the kids back on the 23rd, the kids wanted to spend their money on becki, not their mum. Reason "mummy is nasty"

I went around today to see the kids. Ash had a new pram and a few books; Rich had a dvd and 8 books. You'd mistake it was Christmas.

I've refused to play her game and while she has won a few minor battles, she has lost the war.

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End of term

2010-12-20T23:21:00.001Z

Term has ended :-) Bring on the hols!

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saturday

2010-12-18T20:49:00.001Z

It's been an odd Saturday. Couldn't drive anywhere as the roads are terrible, so the kids have been out in the snow and we've been getting things tidy for chrimbo.

Pity becki is unwell.

Good point is pb3 is fixed and working and I can get it from Roy's tomorrow :-)

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contracts...

2010-12-17T23:20:00.001Z

I hate contract talks, especially in today's economic climate. No longer is it a case of fairness, more a case of not getting screwed over too harshly.

Screwing over means different things to different people. I personally think a 45 hour week for 1600 per month *before* tax being screwed over, but terms like this ate becoming more frequently the norm than exception.

What is the cause of this level of un-lubed shafting? Is it really the economy?

No. Overseas workers. I don't mean folks coming over, more work being sent over, the code getting shat on and then to stay employed, given to the shafted home worker to fix who then is doing twice the work for half the fee.

What makes things worse is that companies don't learn and make the same mistake time and again.

Makes me want to spit.

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When is your opinion someone elses?

2010-12-14T23:45:00.003Z

Ok, this is a slightly odd one - but when is an opinion expressed by you suddenly become someone elses?

Example : I post on facebook or twitter that (say) someone who works with my wife is a troll. This gets back to the person I have written about and my wife gets hauled infront of the boss.

By association, my comment or opinion suddenly becomes mine as if she is able to control my every posting via phone, pc or anything else. It doesn't seem to matter that I am a grown up and that my opinion does not need to reflect that of anyone else - the point is that by association she is hauled up.

I find it insane that in a society such as ours that just because someone says something, someone else gets into trouble (or that there is the potential for trouble to be caused by it).

Example 2 : My son posts on facebook that his mother is an ugly moaning sod who smells of cheap perfume.

Do I get hauled infront of my boss for this? No. Why? Well, it's not posted by me and despite the association of being my son, what he's said doesn't reflect on an organisation

Example 3 : A friends wife decides to join the BNP and spouts a pile of extremely nasty stuff on a public forum. The friend and his wife are well known, but known not to share the same views.

Should the wife's opinions, which are not shared, be thrust upon the spouse or the children of the couple and thulerefore by association cause problems for them?

Well, if people stopped for a moment to actually think, they'd see that the opinions are not shared and other than a quick word to the friend to ensure this is the case, nothing else should happen.

So why do people run scared all of the time? Are they frightened about the reprocussions from the employer from the opinion of someone else or is it something else?

Me, I think it's time people grew up. If I want to say something about an event at a particular organisation that blew chunks, I should be able to - irrespective of if a relation works there or not. It is MY opinion.

This leads to a slightly more difficult complication though - disrepute claims.

When I worked for the University of Salford, I ran into a oarticularly odious little scrote by the name of Ian Gomeche. This troll caused many hours of disruption to Salford who failed to block his numbers, complain to the police or protect an employee - rather they allowed him to clog the switchboards and allow other members of staff to be open to abuse from him.

At one time, he tried to gain favour with the far right, published my (then) address on Combat 18 forums and tried to organise violence against me from the far right. Nothing much happened. He (or a friend) forged an email from me to a mailing list which said that "UK Higher Ed was running shit scared from Microsoft" and used Salford as an example.

This resulted in me getting into a hell of a lot of trouble - despite the fact the email never being investigated. Why? Disrepute.

Despite the posting being made at 11.49pm on a Saturday night on a non Salford machine, because it proported to be from me, it brought my former employer into disrepute.

Sorry, how can an opinion bring an organisation which fails it's employees into disrepute?

An opinion is just that; a personal belief. No one else has to share in that belief as it is not theirs.

Would Salford have been as offended if the opinion expressed was that smoking breaks should be clocked and the worker made to repay them? No. Would they have been offended if the opinion was that not teaching on a Wednesday afternoon was dumb? No. Would they have been offended if the opinion was that the teaching of Chemistry had been dumbed down to stupid levels? No.

All of are opinions. All of them are opinions I have expressed on a number of forums, forums with many thousands of readers worldwide - quite a few former colleagues used quite a lot. Not one caused anyone to flinch.

Any clues onto the difference between what I did write and proported to write? Yes. The clue was in the form of a troll the Uni did nothing to stop. Easier to block a couple of numbers and email addresses or remove a long standing and well thought of employee?

Stupid eh... Loyality, bollocks.

Thank goodness

2010-12-12T22:56:00.002Z

X factor is over with for another year and though it may sound rotten, but I hope the winner's pop career is as long as the rest.

I mean where are they now?

Other than Alexandria Burke and Leona Lewis, the rest have gone. Some lasted longer than others (Girls Aloud, Gareth Gates and the chap who beat Gates), others didn't get that far. Ok, JLS are still here, but they're still young. Seems that those who don't win do better (like Susan Boyle)

Flash in the pan, or as Warhol said, "everyone should have their 15 minutes of fame". But at what cost?

Did Rick Waller think he'd drop faster than a whores knickers on a Saturday night when he won? Or any of the rest?

Can X factor be thought of as just a cruel pass time, much in the same way as people used to laugh at sideshow freaks?

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It never rains...

2010-12-09T22:30:00.001Z

General bad day. Started with becki and me not seeing eye to eye and her going off in a nark.

Next the car hits black ice.

Then bad traffic due to other cars hitting ice then each other.

Next the car does a 360 on a roundabout

And finally when I get home, pb3 (my main pc) is dead.

Urgh!

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Old code and bad blood

2010-12-08T21:29:00.002Z

'Many years ago, well about 5, I answered an advert on the mono-devel email list asking for a dev.

The chap, Jon Mills, wanted a desktop OpenID app and it had to be cross platform which was why he advertised on the mono list.

Lots of skype conversations and many man hours later, there was a demo application for him to hawk around investors.

I was still working at Salford, but he'd offered me a job. Based on what i'd done though, I was to get a new macbook and a 10 day holiday in the usa.

About 3 months of working, jon started to have family problems. Then he vanished.

Needless to say the mac didn't show and the holiday vanished. I was left with unpaid source and egg on my face.

No idea where he is now, but I wish him no harm.

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seriously unwell

2010-12-08T09:40:00.001Z

I have Lurgi. It's official. Head feels like it's in a goldfish bowl with someone playing a bosanova on it.

Throat is burning, lungs hurt and earlier, I decided shouting for Ralph and his erstwhile colleagues, huey, was the order of the day.

Yummy.

On the plus side, erm....

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bloody idiots....

2010-12-07T22:48:00.001Z

I have a friend who has been waiting for months for a crb to be returned. He works in a school, so already has a crb, but due to the idiocy of the Uk system he needs a new one. Makes no difference that his last one was done a month before, another has to be done.

Stupid thing is it's the same authority.

The shame is it is costing him in lost wages.

This stupidity is also costing others, but not financially, but in the use of his experience by those who want to learn.

This is also happening to me.

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sick day

2010-12-05T13:19:00.001Z

Due to a couple of bouts of lurgi while working at foundationcampus, I was hauled up and punished. Part of deal was no illness. as if you can avoid catching plague in a plague factory!

I was made redundant in August (blamed on dropping numbers which was bull), but found work via Protocol national at south cheshire college.

Problem there though is if I'm ill, I get nothing.

I've had colds, coughs, gut problems - the lot. But not a day off. Now I'm ill and not enjoying it. Feels like defeat :-(

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high finance

2010-12-04T12:27:00.001Z

As long as I live I will never understand credit or how they decide who gets it.

Take me. Full time employed, decent enough income, have a couple of online credit accounts, missed no payments on anything, have a mortgage. You'd think I could get a £500 credit card. Think again.

Well, I can at 40% Apr - no thanks.

Yet a friend of mine has maxed out cards, lives in her overdraft and is on the same as me yet finds no problem in getting more credit and cards.

Go figure!

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Getting down to it

2010-11-30T22:44:00.001Z

I woke up this morning feeling like several bags of crap had been knocked out of me. No way I'd be able to teach today, so I took the hit of not getting paid.

Around 11 I started working on the designer for my tutorial software. By 3 I had two previewers and a chunk of the window designed.

Oddly, my favoured design (tree view) wasn't becki's.

She's showing it around tomorrow to get opinions.

Such is the fun of design!

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brrrrrrrr

2010-11-25T08:07:00.001Z

It's a bit cold...

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saturdays

2010-11-20T11:33:00.001Z

I used to hate saturdays. Really hate them. You see, at one time my escape from reality was work. I didn't have to deal with anything as I would be out from half seven until getting on for ten at night.

Unfortunately this did not apply to weekends. Weekends I would have to do family things and face up to a mistake made many years before.

Eventually this could go no further and fortunately circumstances meant they could end.

The divorce could have been better, but no matter.

Now I treasure weekends. I treasure my time with the kids. Most of all, I treasure my wife and my happiness she brings.

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Which is it to be?

2010-11-15T22:40:00.001Z

Dilemma time. With a very small exception, I've worked in education pretty much since leaving school. I know little of the world outside of it.

Education is not an easy world to work in. Sure, there are perks to it, but the downside is that those outside of the sphere regard you as third rate applicants - even if they're second rate employers.

It makes no difference to some of them that you have contributed or written software used around the world, given keynote speeches at conference or anything like that. All they (and recruitment agencies) see is the word "education" glaring from a cv like as if it was painted in Monty Burns finest radioactive goo.

Something though has happened my way which may change it and I need to see if this is the right path. It feels massively different to the last time my fingers were burnt outside of education.

This time though, the stakes are different as home circumstance makes it so. Do I risk relative safety for the potential of a high gain or do I stick with the game that I've played all of these years and which is slowly driving me potty?

Urgh.

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Projects ahoy!

2010-11-14T16:34:00.001Z

One of the things that never ceases to make me smile is the number of requests for help us nice oss hackers receive from companies who then take us for idiots by assuming we'll work for free.

Silly people!

We do the oss coding for the greater good and love of the community, but if you want to hire us, well it will cost just as it would cost if you hired anyone else.

That said, if it's a fun project...

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grrrrr....

2010-11-07T09:49:00.000Z

IBritain is a collection of countries all put together. They're England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Note the names.

I write code in C, C# and C++. if someone said I write in C, they're right, but not if they mean Obj C. Sure it still is part of the C family, but it's not C.

Same goes for the parts of Britain. All four countries are part of Britain, but each are their own distinct place. Each country uses it's own name so why do the English, and only the English, insist on saying they're British?

For goodness sales. People from England are English. Deal with it and rejoice in the place of your birth.

Tough if you don't like it.

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jqueries, webservices and other stuff

2010-11-05T21:53:00.001Z

The Internet contains many things, but doesn't seem to cater for the group of folks that occupy 'the happy medium' - things are either just below moron or somewhere near expert.

My javascript and sql knowledge occupied the 'i know what I'm doing' area. Not expert, but certainly not beginner.

I had a bit of a challenge earlier to write a webservice in vb.Net which is called in by a jquery. The service does some sql look up and returns the result back. Easy.

Easy if I was using mysql, but I was using mssql. Still not hard, the query is more or less the same. Problem is vs 2010 and that it doesn't set things up right.

Searching for why my perfectly good code failed took many times the length to write the code. I eventually found the reason - vs2010 and sql server 2008 don't set things up correctly when installed.

Sorted that one out and as quick as hitting run, everything was good. 30 Mins to write, 10 to debug, 5 days to find the into, sort out the server, lock it down and run.

If this is microsoft's idea of making life simple, they really are clueless!

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let's try it then

2010-10-31T09:57:00.001Z

Just testing to see how easy it is to bloc using blogdroid from the marketplace. Easy enough, but I wish herb would get off me ;-)

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Skypecast

2007-02-22T01:18:00.000Z

I've not been involved in a Skypecast before and was a bit apprehensive. However, it was great fun and very informative; all to do with OpenID. I recommend if you can (and have an interest in the topic) to come along every Wednesday night (UK) and join in the fun.

Well worth it - even if it does only kick off at 11.45pm!

And then there were two...

2007-02-21T00:29:00.000Z

Google don't want me. Hey ho.

Still, leaves the way clear for the other suitors...

Bloody Apple II

2007-02-17T23:18:00.000Z

.dmg - why? What's wrong with ISO? For goodness sakes - why do we need another format?

Wrong number....

2007-02-15T01:41:00.000Z

I have a friend who I've been out of contact with for over a year now. I've sent him the odd text message every now and again and had replies.

Did the same tonight and had an abrupt "WHO IS THIS" reply. Okay, it could be my mate being silly, so I reply with my name. Reply back "WRONG NUMBER".

Hmm.

Not sure what to do about that one :-(

The fun with designing software

2007-02-12T21:44:00.000Z

I write code and leave others to the specifications. It's thankless as unless the person at the other end has a really good idea of what's what, then you find this reality gap between what is needed and what is do-able for the fee.

Take my first paid for piece of software - I found the original designs a day or so back and it looked nothing like what the software ended up looking like or even doing. Okay, that isn't always a bad thing, especially when the original design blew chunks. The problem is that it all adds onto the final time frame and worse still, the cost.

Being a trusting sort of chap, the contract I signed was to deliver the software (binary only - I kept the source for insurance!) for 500 quid - it made no mention of rewrites, arguments with different parties over the functionality or anything like that.

The code was finished in about 2 weeks and bug fixed in 3. Then came the rewrites due to UI and spec changes. In total, it probably too two months - all for a job which would still have only taken 2 weeks if the parties concerned hadn't been bickering. The problem was company A was paying the cost, but company B were in control and more vocal (feedback was more rapid) and the instruction I had was to take the comments from both.

That said, it says something about the quality of the software; no-one has ever re-implemented it.

I have sometimes had occasion to design software and it's thankless. You would think that I would know the difference between possible and practical, but for some reason, when you shift to the other side of the fence, the two become confused!

Oh well. Thank goodness the code I'm currently writing is for a company who actually knows what they want!

Nothing really changes

2007-02-10T00:31:00.000Z

The move currently is towards .NET - we have the MS native implementation and the Mono project (and the GNU implementation - no idea what it's like). It's a true compile once and run anywhere system and it's completely new, revolutionary and brilliant. It doesn't have the problems Java had (needing a JVM to run) and is totally whizzy.

It's so new, it's only been around since the 1980s.

Those cunning continentals back in the early 1980s devised something called BASICODE. What this did was have a set of routines native to the machine it sat on, but from that, you could load in a BASICODE program. This program was the same for *every* machine. To ensure fair play, originally it really was just text but by version 3, simple graphics were being implemented. By that time though, no one was that interested.

The point is that the same program could be run on anything as long as (in effect) the dlls/so files existed for the host; it's really just the same as .NET is now.

Why have I brought this up?

Simple, I like BASICODE and am looking at building a .NET interpreter for BASICODE. No idea when I'll do it (I'm busy on a commercial product currently), but it would be a fun one to do.

Why do Apple make things so expensive?

2007-02-09T23:33:00.000Z

Okay, I don't really have the right to complain here, but hey, it's Friday night, I've been sat infront of a computer most of the day, so sod it - let's do it!

When I escaped from Salford last year, I was given a G3 (it was going to be scrapped). It's a basic model with a CD and crappy little HD.

I replaced the HD with a spare 60Gb one I had from elsewhere. Um. No. Won't take it - they don't tell you there is a 40Gb limit anywhere obvious and you'd just expect it to be taken, face it, the G3 isn't that old.

Now it has a nice 40Gb drive in. Let's reinstall the OS. OSX.2 blew chunks, but no worries, I have X.3 here as well. Gets so far in and dies. Hmmm, let's try Fedora Core 6 for G3 on it. Gets to roughly the same place and dies.

CD is shot.

Okay, let's visit eBay as I have no intention in handing 100 or so quid over to Apple for a new CD. None available. Okay, let's rig up a long IDE cable and power line to another CD which I know works - sounds reasonable and indeed is. Except that for some reason, the drive is not recognised!

I'm used to pain in the arse systems - after all, I was brought up on Acorn boxes which needed all sorts of stuff which was non-standard (for example, its now about 20 quid for a new RiscPC mouse!), but for christsake - is there any reason to make life as nasty as this?

Mono 1.2.3 is out!

2007-02-07T13:58:00.000Z

Mono, the Open Source implementation of .NET released version 1.2.3 today - go get it from http://www.mono-project.com

Lots have happened on this piece of software and if you're not a Win32 monkey (Mac or Linux bod), then it gives you the ability to write code once and play it on many platforms. It saves shed loads of time in development.

Okay, it has bugs, but then so does VC#.NET

My current bugbear is resgen. It should translate the MS .resx files to mono resources files which you then build into the app using -res:foo.resources. The problem is that it doesn't work that well.

For example, if I have the resx file in Properties (which is where VS.NET puts things), run resgen on the resx file and then compile using -res:Properties\Resources.resources, things compile file, but when you run, the mono app complains that the resources file isn't correctly embedded, despite it being 100% there.

Oh well, another BZ to file. I hope Alex (RedHat) manages to get the new mono pushed today/tomorrow...

Central Heating

2007-02-07T00:07:00.000Z

Is knackered again. It keeps going out on me and I have to light it again. Drat. I think it needs an overhaul. Still it does mean I can keep myself warm, dreaming of a latin American singer drizzled in honey and me on a natural sugars only diet....

In other news Liverpool FC is now owned by a couple of bods from the US. Only time will tell if they do right by us.

Still spending too much time thinking about job offers. I suppose it's coming up to that time when I need to weigh up everything. All I can say is thank goodness from my friends - they're helping me greatly currently with lots of good advice and cups of coffee.

Beckyloo, thankyou

Jobs are like buses...

2007-02-06T00:44:00.000Z

... nothing happens then 3 come along at once.

There is nothing like being wanted, the problem comes knowing what you want.

Currently, I'm employed to lecture IT at a NW College of FE having not been unable to dumb myself down far enough to teach in schools (yeah, the adverts are all well and good, but when you have a system which is almost completely geared to pass tests and not really enjoy the topic, it sucks). I love the job; the kids and the staff are wonderful. There is such a wide variety of people that it makes me happy to go in. No two days are the same...

Thing is is this. I write software and have for years. All (except for a very small number of commercial apps, where I've earned about 500 UKP) have been GPL or LGPL, so there is a lot of my stuff out there. I love programming and am not too bad at it.

The college contract is to cover for long term sickness, which means it could flop with a months notice, but I've been informally told not to worry and expect to be there in the next academic year.

I now have two companies interviewing/wanting me, one in the US, the other in the US but with bases closer to home. I'm flattered. Both offer a fantastic salary and both work on cutting edge software in a number of languages (all in the C family - well, more or less all ;-p). Both offer relocation costs.

Problem is that I don't know which way to turn. I know I'm a damned fine lecturer - I'm a skilled professional. I also know the changing nature of FE in the UK, so I could have a job in 2007 - 2008, but then be out on my ear after then. I also know there is a culture shock of moving from the safe (well, relatively safe) world of education and into the big bad world and that I live or die on the quality of my code. I don't have a problem with that; my stuff is good. The volatility of the industry is another issue.

The final part of the problem is relocation.

I love England. I have always loved it, will always love it and would not want to be from it. It's my home, my land, my everything. "It's a dump, but it's my dump" as the saying goes!

While one of the companies is a short trek to Dublin, it's still going to be a case of come the summer moving everyone and everything to there. Quite daunting as my family is still quite young (Richard is 8, Ashleigh isn't yet 18 months!).

Worse would be the US. I have nothing against the US - it looks to be a nice place. But it has these nasty things which tend to bite you to death which I have a natural aversion to. As the company is somewhere near Ohio, there are lots of these bitey things around.

Christ, I hate making decisions.

Blueyonder - What a bunch of buttmonkeys!

2007-02-06T00:28:00.000Z

For years I have been a customer of Blueyonder. Okay, they started off as Cable NorthWest, which then became Telewest which became Blueyonder Broadband which is soon to become Virgin. They represented high quality at a decent cost with a really good internet service.

Then they upped their prices.

Okay, I could live with that as the broadband was still extremely reliable

Then the others improved their services

Okay, the call costs on cable were enough for it to make sense for me to stick with them

Then Telewest upped their call costs

Um, let's see what else is out there.

Now the so-n-so's are putting restrictions on the bandwidth under the guise of "improvements to the service". I have NEVER understood this. How can putting a restriction on a previously unrestricted service be even remotely an improvement of the service? An improvement would be upping everyones broadband at no extra cost or becoming competative on the phones.

This takes the biscuit. I know a company has to make a profit, but when it's now cheaper to be on BT (see below) than Cable, there is little point in keeping them. Pity. 13 years with the same operator shows how good they really were.

BT
Phoneline : 11.50
Broadband (Sky) : 10:00, *upto* 16Mb (depends how far you are from the exchange)
Total : 21:50.

Even if you need a new line putting in, that only adds a tenner a month making 31.50

Telewest
Phoneline : 11.00
Broadband : 25.00 (4Mb, 35.00 10Mb)
Total : 36.00

Call costs don't matter really as Skype is universally used now, but even if you did use the landline, the price is buttons now as to make no odds.

Ho hum.

VS.NET vs Mono

2007-02-05T00:02:00.000Z

C# is a classy language, I really enjoy using it. However, there are two camps of users - those who use the Microsoft .NET and those who use the Novell implementation of the .NET framework, mono.

Both have their advantages, both have disadvantages (the price for the Microsoft is a big one), but how good are they for RAD?

VS.NET is a sinch to use and to get the UI up and running. The problem is that the code editor blows chunks and the compiler doesn't really help when it comes to debugging. MonoDevelop (the OSS alternative targeted at Mono) doesn't really have a UI designer to speak of (it does for glade, but I'm talking using SWF/MWF here) and is linked to the mono gmcs compiler (or mcs depending on what you've got running). Compile times aren't that hideously different for a moderate sized application.

Due to the lack of UI designer, MD has problems. Sure, coding is much nicer using MD, but the designer element causes problems.

How about just designing under VS.NET and moving it to Mono?

Nice idea, not gonna happen. Mono does things in an odd way. If I use resgen to convert the VS.NET resx file to a resources file, I can compile the code, but then it falls flat when it tries to run as the resources file isn't "correctly embedded".

Pain in the backside if you ask me!

What about just using VS.NET?

Sure, problem is then getting the compiled binary to work on a Mac and Linux box...

Dammit...

I hate deciding things

2007-02-04T23:50:00.000Z

- especially when they affect my family!

I have a number of people wanting me currently. My current employers want me - well, you'd expect that - why else would they employ me?

Only problem is that I have two other companies wanting my services - both wanting to take me away from working in education and into working as a software engineer full time.

This may not sound a big problem, but they both need me to relocate to other parts of the world. Not huge for me, but it is a hell of an uprooting for the family.

Why is life such a pain?